What radio is on the ISS?

[N8WCT]

Anybody know what 2m voice radio they use on the International Space Station?

Wattage and antenna (type and polarization) info would be great too.

Thanks!

[W5PFG]

Anybody know what 2m voice radio they use on the International Space Station?

Wattage and antenna (type and polarization) info would be great too.

Thanks!

There is more than one radio station on board the ISS. I do know a Kenwood TM-D700 is used with several configurations. You might be better served to ask this question on the ISSFANCLUB.COM forum. You'll get a more "official" answer over there.

[KD0CAC]

Looking to also make contact with the ISS one of these days .
I've been in infected by Grandpa Kettle

[WD9EWK]

Anybody know what 2m voice radio they use on the International Space Station?

Wattage and antenna (type and polarization) info would be great too.

Thanks!

For the scheduled QSOs and the 2m packet activity, the ISS crews typically use a modified Kenwood TM-D700 2m/70cm FM mobile transceiver in the Russian Zarya module. The power is either at 5W or 10W, into a whip antenna on the outside of the ISS. A good description of this station is available at: http://www.ariss-eu.org/phase_2_document.pdf. There has been some packet activity on 437.550 MHz, using an Ericsson UHF HT and an AMSAT-developed packet system described on pages 2 and 3 in that PDF. I don't recall if the UHF station is using one of the other ham antennas on the Zarya module or is in the newer European Columbus module - which has antennas for at least 1.2 and 2.4 GHz.

73!

[K6LCS]

>> .. Looking to also make contact with the ISS one of these days ...

A bunch of factors come into play. Not only do you need to keep your Keplerian data updated often - because the ISS is maneuverable - but also ...

1. You need to watch the astronauts' respective countries' ISS work schedules to look for a block of free time
2. Remember that the astronauts work/live on UTC/GMT time (for the most part)
3. Watch the dcarr.org Live OSCAR Status site for reception reports
4. Watch the issfanclub.com site for info
5. Watch the NASA ISS status page for announcements

You can monitor our ARISS contacts - when workable for you in your region. We performed more than 120 of these school-to-ISS contacts last year. These are wonderful ten-minutes sessions between students and the astronauts (search YouTube for "ARISS" and you can see quite a few).

Clint Bradford, K6LCS
NASA / ARISS school tech support

[KB5NBJ]

look up my call on qrz kb5nbj there is a link to a contact i made it has pictures on the video of the radio they use...it is a kenwood
ithe video is about 12 min the radio is at the end
charles kb5nbj